Tales of Jadis 2 - The Day of Reckoning
by Glenstorm63
Summary: Jadis arrives back in Narnia at last to confront her penultimate nemesis. There is a twist coming. This is one scenario that I've been incubating for a long time. In this version, Jadis comes back to Narnia alone. There are 5 chapters in all. Please leave comments and reviews folks!
1. Chapter 1

_..._

 _Survival on the edge of spite_

 _Can drive a girl to grow her might_

 _Resourcefulness her food and drink_

 _Her brawn to toil, her brain to think_

 _..._

 _So when the time has come quite near_

 _To make her flight, her sights quite clear_

 _The focus on, she is quite ready_

 _Knowing she must keep quite steady_

 _..._

Jadis had bided her time. But she was back at last, alone, after nine hundred years ready to silence that blasted Tree of Protection that had trapped her in the far north for so long.

Her survival had meant fleeing as far north from the tinnitic ringing of the Tree of Narnia as she possibly could.

The Tree had spread its sickly sweet tone and scent of faith, duty, love and forgiveness most strongly over Narnia but also of the habitable world and kept lesser evils at bay. None of her students and followers, even innocent ones whom were able to freely enter and go about Narnia had been able to harm it.

In her early forays to destroy the Tree's influence she had repeatedly sent her minions from the rocks and ice and bleak northern forests with axes, or tempted human travellers to return to Narnia and simply chop it down. But it had been to no avail.

The world's defence situated in the site of creation worked to perfection and her plans had gone nowhere. She had heard reports that the rulers of the land, the descendants of that bumbling idiot with the bowl on his head, who had driven the hooded chariot through London kept a close guard on the tree.

But she came to know that they needn't have bothered. That tree looked after itself thank you very much, and much else beside. So she had had to prepare and come herself.

For her, it had taken all the slowly grinding years of her blessed and cursed life to get this close and now, finally it was within her field of vision. If her plans went accordingly, she would soon be able to rove as widely as she would and at any time during the world's solar year. The promise of god-head that had been all but made to her at the dawn of time had not come to fruition yet

Jadis had studied the alien stars and charted the elliptical orbits of this world and its companions for at least a hundred years before she was able to predict when this world's fullest aphelion would be reached. Alambil, Zardeenah and Tarva in the right time would pull the Narnian world even further away from its sun than normal and it was at this time she knew she would have the most power to strike.

It had taken many more cycles whilst she was based in the far north before she learned to partially barricade her mind from the Tree's cursed vibration. And it had taken until the last three hundred years of her sojourn in this exasperating world before she had finally perfected the weapon she needed to silence it forever. She hefted the enchanted narwhal tusk in her hand, its spiralled length finely balanced, its smooth rainbowed surface glistening like mercury.

...

To finally get to the saddle of these twin hills overlooking the great Valley of Narnia she felt that a major milestone had been reached. If the fates existed, they were on her side. And if not, she had got here through sheer force of will, and ingenuity.

Once silenced, that tree would stop jamming her vitality and her magic and she would be able to tap the deep wells of power that underlay this land, and those nearby to the south.

She breathed deeply in anticipation.

The Empire of Calormen, she had heard, had much to recommend it and its neighbouring lands to the South and West. It might not be Charn, but what could she not achieve there under this young yellow sun with the sources of power across the world finally unlocked to her? No longer just power of ice and stone and the deep fire would bend to her will, soon powers of wind, earth and the verdant green forests.

Even in the depths of this, of all mid-winters, and with all her protective spells, teas and copper bracelets, she could still feel the pounding at her temples threatening to spill over into tinittic frequency, hot flushes and nausea. The dull white sun was very low in the south, gradually travelling westwards to sink into the south western mountains. It was time. High time.

She took off her boots. Her feet needed to be in contact with the ground.

Jadis hunkered down in a lunge, braced against the rocks and carefully balanced her tall narwhal wand across her left arm and looked steadily along its length. There was the Tree, about two miles away standing on the edge of a creek that spilled in a series of gentle cascades several yards above the Great River, all now rimed with ice and snow. She could feel it as much as see the tree with dead accuracy. She could spy its guards circling the tree, perhaps feeling uneasy, or maybe just very cold.

Jadis adjusted slightly, took an eyesight again, held position, stilled, closed her eyes and took her awareness to the deep knowledges she had been building since the dawn of time. She let them build, cords of power from the ice clouds of the stratosphere and the Great Cold of the far north. Cords from the grinding tectonic plates of the earth and the deep fires within she let flow into her.

With careful manipulation, she directed them into the substance of the wand where they twined, grew and plaited. It thrummed quietly and then began to vibrate in her hands. She quickly quelled this by deepening and evening her breathing and concentrated on setting limits on the speed of its inflow. Slowly, slowly, the power was steadied into a slim stream, from the deep earth and from the sky. The twining forces were combined. Jadis was now an open conduit. She forced herself to stay grounded, gripping the ground with spread toes. She couldn't hold it much longer. So she opened her eyes and focused again on the tree down the wand's length. One more breath. In. And out!

The forces channelled through her, out of the wand. A beam of bright jagged ice fire streamed across the valley and hit the tree two miles away. Her aim was straight. It was immediately enveloped in a cloud of ice crystals. She could just see it. Jadis maintained the power for as long as she could. 900 years had been far too long to wait.

Jadis drove down into her own will to keep the flow steady and hold the wand on a clear aim. She knew this freezing of the Tree would take time. She settled in. Her new world was about to begin. She drifted into a timeless state.

...

It was into darkness that she woke.

Snow had fallen around her and she was nearly covered. Her feet were deeply frozen and it was spreading.

Grimly, Jadis groped about and found her wand next to her, still intact. Its heat flowed into her thawing her blood and regenerating her nerves; sending her legs and feet into a jangling mess of pins and needles. She pulled her skins close about and struggled on her thick fleece lined boots. After a few minutes, Jadis stood up shakily, brushing snow off and tried to survey the valley below. The darkness was dense. The cold was no worse than she was used, but dark clouds covered the stars. Deep snow no doubt covered Narnia but she could not see it.

She would have to wait until morning.

It was then she finally noticed. The tinittic ringing in her ears was gone. The nausea that had so plagued her again since coming south of the arctic circle was gone. Her sense of dread was gone. The Tree of Protection had been silenced.

Jadis stood trembling. All her long centuries of enduring the cold were over.

The drudgery of eking out an existence on the arctic tundra, on the ice and the frozen seas, living off walrus, mammoth, herring, cod, sea serpents, seals and whales was over. Trying to learn about the world developing around her through indifferent agents who could come further south than she, was over. Keeping the company of eldritch rock and ice spirits, the grotesque Orknies and the wolfish creatures of the snow storm was over.

Jadis almost felt her cheeks blush with pleasure. She laughed gaily to herself for the first time since first eating those apples and reached for her pack. She might be immortal but she would soon need sustenance. So she reached in and took out a roll of freeze dried flesh, broke off a piece and let it moisten and soften in her mouth. It was mammoth, one of the sweetest meats. She reflected, realising that she would almost miss their flesh, but knew that where she was going the world would be her oyster and nothing would limit her appetites.

Jadis hunkered down with her hooded skins about her and dozed till dawn.


	2. Chapter 2

_RINGBARK_

 _..._

 _Are ancient choices set in stone?_

 _For she who killed a world alone?_

 _May second chances still be granted?_

 _By he who made the Tree be planted?_

 _..._

 _For she who ranges this far south_

 _May walk into the Lion's mouth_

 _Contrition he may tolerate_

 _But woe to she who takes the bait_

 _..._

Jadis didn't intend to bother with Narnia itself for long. She reached for her skis.

Both skis and poles were a rustic affair; whalebone laminated with resin and straps of rawhide. But they worked. She had learned her craft well. Still at the lip between the two hills she reflected for a moment upon what a fine view it was a moment and then took off to survey the damage and to take her plan a little further. With her wand bound to her backpack, she pushed off.

A pair of stone gryphons stood with neck hackles and wings forever raised looking anxiously to the north. The tree under which they stood raked its graceful branches skyward, as it awaited its nemesis.

Jadis pulled up in a flurry of snow and surveyed the tree warily before stepping out of her skis and approaching it very slowly. Was it also turned to stone?

She could feel the cold radiating from the tree with the intensity of a blizzard. She gripped her wand, drawing on its heat to sustain her as frost began to form on her brow and lips.

But was the tree dead? Was it stone or simply frozen?

The deep magic from the dawn of time told her that the tree should be deeply frozen, that her wand would have been unable to truly turn it to stone and that in time, left to its own devices, it might ultimately revive.

There was only one way to find out and she had the tools to do it. And if her prediction was correct it would now be the right time now to kill it completely... if she could.

Her attraction to the far north had been the source of survival and her banishment there a source of frustration. Nine hundred years was far too long to make a stumble now. She dare not touch the tree… yet.

She reached with her wand as she approached and brushed one of its lower far reaching branches. It snapped and fell to the ground. She examined the break and saw the growth rings. It looked like petrified wood but was so cold and colourless, she could not tell the substance by eye.

She knew she was playing a game of cat and mouse and she was determined to not spring a trap.

Jadis fished around in her pack and carefully unwrapped from its sealskin sheath, a long stone knife.

Jadis may have acquired immortality but she was not invulnerable and had risked her life to retrieve the stone from which it was made by climbing deep into a fiery reeking crevasse in the far north.

It was one of the firestones from the forges of the Emperor, the highest power of this world and she had wrested it fairly from his volcanic grasp in an act of pluck, skill and ingenuity.

Handcrafted painstakingly over more than five hundred years, it was imbued with every curse she had uttered whilst slowly scraping its shape, every wound she had suffered whilst learning to fend for herself and every day and night of endurance in those early centuries. No longer Queen of anywhere or any people.

Over the last four hundred years since it had been completed, Jadis had kept it by her side, slept with it cradled against her body in her ice houses over the endless winter darknesses.

Jadis' purpose had been as sharp and as focused as this knife. It had absorbed her dreams and her memories. Even much of the reflected power of the Deplorable Word had flowed into the knife, turning it into an embodied curse which could unknit the webs of life in anything and most especially this tree.

The Deplorable Word of ill-fated Charn had no direct resonances in this world as she had discovered. At a low point of misery in her early days in this world, she had uttered the word out loud, screaming it from a mountain-top, too despairing to care anymore. Nothing happened. The tone of the Tree kept going. Nausea and tinnitus kept going. She had had to distract herself and assuage her discomfort through action and she got this when a flock of snow geese flew over honking. There was the proof that the Deplorable word in its raw form did not work here.

Jadis had not wasted time though, by using a bolas to drop one of the flock to the ground and butchering the bird. She had not perfected the making of fire at that point, so she had had to eat the warm flesh directly from the carcass and then slice and freeze-dry the remaining meat and eat it slowly. Jadis had been proud of herself and came to enjoy meat this way and to despise the spoilt palace brat she had once been.

But that had been long ago. She was now a woman of great resourcefulness and self-sufficiency.

Jadis grasped the knife and approached the Apple Tree. It took her fifteen paces to circle its girth. Its gnarled trunk rose above her spreading its boughs aloft to at least six times her height, its bare branches a black ice rimed network against the grey sky.

The knife was poised, honed with time, curses, loneliness and deadly purpose.

Now it had come to its destined task, Jadis wondered if it would now perform against the deep ice if ice it was. But as she murmured the words of the great firestones of the north, her knife warmed in her hand and blazed with sudden fire. There was not a moment to lose. Jadis plunged the knife in and began hacking at the frozen bark. The knife cut through the bark like butter. She began slicing two deep cuts in a wide strip all around the tree, cutting deep into the bark and exposing the timber. As she ringbarked the tree with the knife, the heat of the knife momentarily thawed some of the sap before falling to the frozen ground. It rose in a scented steam and Jadis began to experience the nausea and disorientation that had so plagued her. But she could not stop now, so she repeatedly spat her bile into the snow as she circled the tree.

It was nearly all over in less than an hour and she had cut a ten inch wide swathe almost all the way around the tree. Jadis swayed and steadied herself, before staunchly attacking the last remaining inches.

The very last stroke she had even more bile in her mouth, which she spat it to the ground where it froze instantly.

The last curl of bark hit snow. At that moment, she felt a tremor run through the earth and then a sound that followed. It was the sound of a billion ice crystals forming deep beneath her, crystallizing and going off into the distance, and then a curious hollow boom like thunder on the horizons.

The vibrations of the world had changed again. That was unexpected.

Warily, she looked about. Nothing. Nothing seemed to have changed but something had. What?


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3: SUSPICION_

 _..._

 _There is always left a place to hide,_

 _For those for whom the worlds collide,_

 _And those who seek to make true frie_ _nds,_

 _Can always hope to make amends._

 _..._

 _But when the poison swells the canker,_

 _And re-venge is the greedy banker,_

 _Freedom true may still elude,_

 _And deepen yet the evil mood._

 _..._

No matter. Her path to the wider world could be in any direction she chose but instead of trying to climb the mountains to the south, she chose to go down the valley to the ocean. She would find a boat and sail southward on cold winds into balmier seas. She would see with her own eyes what had chanced in Narnia since the first day.

Before leaving she collected up her clumps of frozen bile and crushed them into a great ox horn, sealed it with clay from the riverbank, and stowed it carefully in her pack. As much of the apple tree bark with its frozen sap she could manage, she stowed in her pack. She had an idea.

One last look around, she surveyed the stone gryphons again. Magnificent creatures! If they had only been bred to be a little larger, she could have used one as a steed. No matter, there would be many opportunities to come.

Down the valley swept Jadis. Her eyes protected by goggles of clear polished turtle shell. Past Beaversdam. Past villages and hamlets, with smoking chimneys, she saw only a few people about on that late morning. A centaur or two raking the snow outside their stables. A family of weasels gambling in the snow. A great grey owl cruising and surveying the landscape for prey. A group of faun and human children building a snow figure. Twice she saw small spruce trees being dragged into houses. Curious.

She camped for the night in her hide tent across the Great River from a bald hill. It was bathed in cold moonlight and it seemed to call to her. More curious. She had dreams of torches, leering faces and the beating of drums. She held her stone knife high in the air…! She woke in the night with a beating heart and a sense of triumph. She lay pondering until daybreak.

Dreams aside, that bald hill might bear a closer look one day. She was sorely tempted. It was a point of power, do doubt of that. But for now, her destiny lay to the South. She had had enough of being tempted into traps.

Many leagues still to go, right through Beruna, down the main street she slalomed, her austere beautiful face glimpsed by some of the curious ones, framed by the halo of white fur around her hooded clothing.

On, on she went, until she finally reached the estuary at midday. There was Paravel Town, sprawled along its swampy edges and nearby hills and the low headland with the Castle overlooking the sea. It was a beautiful building indeed, although not to her dramatic taste. She realised that the descendants of Frank the Cabby had done well for themselves, if rather twee in their styling.

Jadis pulled up outside what looked like an inn, took off her skis, and traded some gold she had panned, for a heated room for several nights and the best of their vittles. It had been centuries since she had been amongst people and she had always been a ruler, so it was very hard to conduct herself with the respectful propriety of a customer. Jadis was determined to get what she wanted with minimum fuss, so she smiled sweetly and spoke softly even though the inn keeper was bug eyed with her height and complexion.

She then trudged down to the docks using her wand disguised as a walking stave, her knife at her hip and made enquiries about ships to the South. The harbour-master, was on the porch of a small office slouching in front of a brazier, smoking a pipe looking woebegone. Jadis strode right up to him and stopped two feet away. Eventually noticing her presence, he peered up at her from under the broad brim of his tall pointed hat with bloodshot eyes. He was a thin khaki-skinned man, with bony knees up near his shoulders, very thick scarf, long dreaded hair… and webbed fingers and toes! He struggled up and he was nearly her height. She sniffed. He smelt of smoke and old mud.

He reported that to his knowledge "There will be no ships leaving in the next few months now! Only yesterday morning, the Great Cold came down. Land sakes! The entire harbour is frozen solid! Haven't seen it in my day. Mid-winter and Alambil and all being so close. Happen it's the end of the world as we know it. No doubt the ships will all get crushed and Narnia's hard won imports and exports will sink to the bottom of the bay."

It was a reasonable if pessimistic conclusion. Jadis had to wonder why all hands were not on the wharf now, busy removing all goods from the ships before such a disaster did indeed strike. Such lack of action spoke of an administration either consumed with disorganisation or just waiting for some mysterious higher power to just put it all to rights again.

Then his offsider, a hard-bitten looking bull seal which had been lying nearby whuffed apologetically and looking sideways at his senior, ventured;

"There he goes again! Way he carries on, you'd think the sky would fall in or we were in for a century of never-ending winter. Pardon me mistress, but the Winterfather's visit is due in two days and he always brings good cheer and rescues situations. Never you mind, all will come good, you'll see", he said with cheery patronage.

He galumphed over on the pier and reared up looking Jadis in the eye, winked reassuringly, and puffed fish-scented steam into the cold air.

The Marshwiggle harbour-master was nonchalant about this insubordination and just fished around in his pocket for some green weed and began packing his pipe with it.

Jadis was having no truck with the performing seal, especially one that treated her so familiarly. She had bludgeoned too many to start treating one as a sentient being anyway.

"And who, pray tell, would the Winterfather be?" she muttered, fixing the Marshwiggle with her stare, as he took a live coal from the brazier and lit up, taking a deep toke.

He held the smoke in, the whites of his eyes showing under heavy lids. What a revolting habit. The rank odour of his smoke gusted in her face on his exhale and she had to step backwards to avoid it. But in the cold air, most of the smoke trickled downwards.

"Don't know the Winterfather?" ejaculated the seal, this time intruding further into her space and fixing her with its eye. It wasn't going to be ignored "You're not from Narnia then." It was a statement, not a question.

"I am from the far North" she said minimally.

"What are you anyway? Never seen a human quite like you before. You some kind of dryad escaped from your frozen tree in the Great Cold, or something?"

Jadis' hand quivered. This intrusive seal was a shrewd one. She clutched her wand, resisting the temptation to leave him permanently reared up on the wharf as a welcome-statue. But she wanted information.

"Tell me of this Winterfather then," Jadis commanded coolly.

The seal tilted his head at the Marshwiggle again, but he was already occupied with repacking his bowl again. So the seal rolled his eyes, took a breath and continued.

"The Winterfather is one of the many semi-divine visitors who grace Narnia with their presence in due season. He comes about now at winter solstice. He always brings a gift for everybody and it is always the thing you need most, even if you don't know it yourself. Last year it was a nice reinforced snug burrow in the sand-hills over there," he tipped his head to the north past the headland, "so my darling one could pup in comfort in the spring. And the King got a new library after the last one caught fire. All his cook got was a new rolling pin. Only the day before she'd thrown it at the duchess and her screaming baby but it went into the hearth and burnt to ashes!"

He was obviously an enthusiastic welcomer of travellers to this land.

To prove it, he snorted with laughter, spraying Jadis with his mucous and saliva. It took all her self-control to keep listening.

"Then in summer, there's Pomona the fruit mother. All the shrubs and trees bear fruit and seed in abundance… and in autumn it's Bacchus. He's a jolly fellow with his wine and his mad girls, all I hear. People say they have a good time. The woods all come alive, they say. Ooh and then there's Silenus the fat old coot on his frisky donkey. It's said anything might happen when that lot are about. Half of Narnia is still recovering!"

Jadis was intrigued. What a messy, disorganised, self indulgent clutch of stupidity this place seemed. Unless of course this seal was pulling her leg.

"Can't understand the fuss myself," he went on. "Some people, myself included, just hide or go off for a long swim. They bring their plenty especially if it's been a hard season for the land folks. Why they can't all just eat fish is beyond me."

He glanced pityingly at the Wiggle, who's head was tipped back, eyes closed, leaning against a post, letting the smoke slowly trickle out of his nose, his eyes heavily lidded.

The seal whuffed the noxious smoke and sneezed, spraying Jadis' face liberally again. "Why indeed?" she said through gritted teeth. Her hand clutched the wand even harder, jaw clenched.

"Disgusting", the seal said, meaning the smoke, not the sneeze.

The seal sailed on regardless. "Then there's old Glaucus of course. He comes up from the sea and holds court on the rocks and makes prophecies and brings a nice net of fish. He's the best."

"And who controls these... beings?" she enquired through her teeth, lest he sneeze in her direction again, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Oh, that's Aslan of course, he's the chief of them all".

The name didn't register. "Aslan?" she asked blankly.

Even the Wiggle responded to that one, both bloodshot eyes opened wide, "Blow wow! You don't know the great Lion?"

Jadis just managed to prevent herself from gratuitously petrifying the two with the wand before she strode down the wharf fuming, wiping her face with her sleeve.

[I'd like to acknowledge Heliopause, from whom I have borrowed the term Winterfather instead of Father Christmas. Much more satisfying.]


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: PREPARATION

When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone,

Sits in Cair Paravel in throne,

The winter deep will close its vice,

And Narnia will pay the price.

For she who'd claim its broad estate,

Will find that she must concentrate,

Instead on staying in this clime,

From spells before the dawn of time.

Jadis wasn't surprised. She should have known that Lion would leave a host of secondary gods and goddesses to carry out his work whilst he was away.

If this Winterfather has about to show himself, it would be interesting to see what he would offer her as a gift. She snorted. A pathway out of this place would do for a start.

If the harbour was frozen solid there would be no reason why she couldn't walk out to the edge of the ice and hail a passing ship. But she would have to seek assistance from more than that seal and his doleful overseer. She considered a moment. If there was a talking seal, there might be a talking bird who could be made to hail a passing ship. Or perhaps there were descendants of that flying horse who could take her even further? She didn't care any more about comfort on a sea voyage. After what she had been through for so long, she would travel on anything.

Jadis strode to the very end of the wharf and stared out to sea. As far as the eye could see it was white. There was not a sound to be heard except the cracking of ice. Even the world's wind was stilled.

Jadis had thought to leave Narnia in quick time and leave it to its own devices. But it seemed that her own actions had capitulated events towards preventing this happy occurrence. The few ships that were in harbour were definitely frozen in. And the officials of the port near Cair Paravel were about as useful as wet rags.

She surveyed the mountains to the south and despite her ancient vitality, strength and wiry fitness, she wasn't much looking forward to crossing them in mid-winter. And after what she had just been through in the last few days, she would also need a nap.

Her eyes strayed up to the castle, considering, then back to the wharf. She had an idea.

Four ships of draught with tall masts and numerous small vessels were anchored and tied to the cleats of the wharf, all stock still, caught in the great ice. Some were on a tilt or with prows or sterns lifting somewhat, compressed by the deep ice. All were half covered in drifts of snow. Icicles depended from some of the rigging. Few of their crews were about. The last was a vessel with high prow and stern. A bright sail with broad orange and red stripes was furled and half covered in frosting. Two of its traders were abroad, orange turbans and dark bearded faces looking dolefully down at the ice that had caught their ship. It was going nowhere fast. That was clear.

Jadis hailed the two men and beckoned. They looked relieved to have something to take their minds off their sorrows and came to the edge of the deck and looked down at her. Clearly they were intrigued by her height and such a pale complexion. It was only when she opened her mouth and called with a strong clear ringing voice, "From where does your vessel come fine fellows? And what do you trade?" that they realised she was not a man.

One spoke. "Madam, we have brought fruits of the sun; fresh oranges, dried apricots and nectary dates from the great land of Calormen, far to the south of here, dark wines and angora fleeces soft as oil and warm as blood from our Western mountains and barrels of oiled fish from the Eastern Sea."

"Ah!" Jadis sighed with long ago memory. How long had it been since she had touched and tasted such luxuries? "Your words have the ring of truth and promise. Let it be as you say and you shall trade here till your vessel is empty and ready for its return load, when this cursed ice shall melt away."

The second said: "Never let it be said that the ' _Tarkheena's place is in the palanquin and the studied voice of economic wisdom lies only in her husband_.' You bring good cheer to us sorry fellows."

Jadis demurred slightly and curtseyed with a smile. These men grinned but did not laugh.

Then the first continued. "The poets have said; _'_ _the days of dearth reduce one's girth, but the offer of pleasure brings joy without measure'_. Tash grant it be so here. Mayhap Narnia, this land of strange beasts and walking demons, will need these treasures more than ever; now the Great Cold has reached its pitch. But we cannot hope to find a market here nor return to balmy seas and the desert rivers from this vice of ice today. We fear for the very integrity of our vessel. May it chance madam, that you have ventured from yonder castle to offer trade or crescents, for you have the look of royalty despite your strange gear? We long to go ashore to shelter and warmth, but dare not leave our vessel unattended."

Jadis chanced a false identity and matched her tone to theirs. "Indeed, intrepid traders. Narnian hospitality has been slow of late and for that I beg you mercy. I am the chatelaine of yonder castle and it is I who have been sent by the rulers to treat with you. How do I come aboard?" She could have vaulted on, but she needed to keep some of her secrets.

The first man looked at the other and murmured something inaudible about retainers. But he said aloud " _the poets have said that the mysterious gifts of the gods are oft the source of trepidation but the presence of a woman of flesh and blood gives a man's heart palpitation_. Certainly, we shall let down the plank for your august self."

Jadis considered his words with a secret smile on her face.

Down came the gang plank, and up she strode. The two Calormenes, as she now deemed them to be, bowed low and looked quite startled when they realised how tall she really was as she loomed at them with alarming swiftness. Jadis' ice green eyes surveyed them from more than a head and shoulders above their own and they were most discomfited.

"Show me your wares" she said with just a hint of command in her voice.

Less than an hour later, Jadis had taken command of the ship and its cargo. The crew of ten who'd been huddled in a stuffy cabin away from the cold were now petrified for an eternity and the two traders stood in the picturesque solemn poses she had caught them in with her wand. She found a small chest of gold and silver Crescents with a few Lions and Trees amongst them. Jadis grabbed a few oranges for the sheer pleasure of them, then placed a ward around the vessel to dissuade intruders, hefted the chest onto her shoulder and strode back to the inn.

Jadis immediately spoke to the innkeeper and arranged for him to send for a mercer and a seamstress, to visit her that very night. She explained that she was foreign royalty , travelling incognito and wanted to be suited for an audience with the King. She offered more gold. She then demanded a long hot bath and retired to her chamber to enjoy it. The chamber was a rustic affair with limed timber floors, a rag rug, and a wood fire. The bath was hardly large enough for her tall frame but she made the best of it and scrubbed hard until her skin looked almost pink. The bed was a solid horse-hair-stuffed mattress covered with scratchy flaxen sheets and layers of creamy woollen blankets. Jadis slept deeply for two hours until a discrete knock could be heard on her door.

"Enter!"

In stepped two very ordinary looking women, pale skinned, pink cheeked matrons. Both much shorter than she, but fully human. That was a relief. They bobbed and curtseyed nervously, especially when she slid out of bed like an alabaster statue and demanded they take her measurements.

One had brought swatches of velvets, silks, cloth, fur and suede and several strings of beads, toggles and buttons. The other had ink, parchments and a tape measure.

Two hours later, Jadis had ordered three full sets of clothes, the first to be delivered by noon tomorrow, the others on subsequent days. They nearly fainted, but took the generous down-payment and scuttled off breathlessly.

…

Having requisitioned the ink and some of the parchment, Jadis set about writing an introduction to the King of Narnia, notifying him that he could expect Her Royal Highness, Jadis, Empress of Charn, Felinda and Bramandin to pay a call for afternoon tea on the day of the Winterfather and to ask if she could expect an escort to be provided. She sent the inn's energetic house boy to deliver the missive and paid him a whole gold crescent for his trouble. No doubt now, her reputation would precede her.


	5. Chapter 5

Summary: Jadis prepares for her reception at Cair Paravel and has visionary dreams which offer salvation... which she rejects. A fast ending.

The simple pleasures of the table,

Remind us of when we were able,

To feel so nurtured and so free,

No cares at all, for you and me.

...

We long to return to that time,

The days of innocence sublime,

Before the trials of adult life,

Descended on us with its strife.

...

Before we made our big decisions,

With bad mistakes and dread collisions,

Destruction and havoc in our wake,

If we looked back, our hearts might break.

...

For regret is a tricky thing,

We need to feel its bitter sting,

But in guilt to wallow is not the rule,

Instead, responsibility, our tool.

...

Jadis dined alone that night, cross legged on her bed with rugs about her newly scrubbed and cleansed skin, drinking hot duck soup with barley and cress directly from a fine porcelain bowl. There was also crusty bread to dip with stiff yellow salted cream with chives to spread on it. And a bowl of raspberries and warm syrup to follow.

She revelled in the airiness and gentle warmth of the stoked fire in the room after living in the close quarters of ice houses in the far north for so long. She remembered long ago, cleansing herself for the first time in thermal pools under the ice and scrubbing with snow and sand not long after her expulsion to the far north. What a relief it had been after so many months of toil and searching to find such a place, which she had returned to again and again.

This time, nearly nine hundred years later, she was on the edge of a new life again and she couldn't help but enjoy the simple indulgence of sitting in her own clean skin in a warm airy room, eating simple, delicious and subtle food. It reminded her of the long forgotten days as a little girl, when she had stayed at her nurse's old country home in the spring on the outskirts of Felinda.

For a moment, all the long centuries slipped away. Court intrigue, the learning of dark secrets, rivalry, war, world-destroying, her unguessably long sleep in the hall of images and her lengthy sojourn surviving on the edge of this new world retreated into a distant past. She felt her simple heart beating and felt her long locks of dark lustrous hair against the skin of her back as she stretched long muscular legs and rubbed the last pain and stiffness from her previously frost bitten feet. Overall, she was glad to be alive, glad to be surviving in a world of exasperating miracles and glad to be facing a new tomorrow. Without conscious volition, she sent a prayer of thanks to the faceless gods of the deep sky and imbued it with all the tender hope and joy of a maiden on the cusp of adulthood.

It was in this state that she fell into a deep sleep that lasted for many hours. Towards morning, she dreamed vividly.

Firstly she found herself floating across an expanse of grass under the boughs of trees, under which large rounded pools of water showed not reflected sky and leaves but visions of worlds, as looking down bright wells. She was at peace and full of wonder. She felt strongly as if she'd been there before.

Then she found herself plummeting down into one of the pools. Ripples cleared and she knew she was in Charn, inspecting the cages of the fighting beasts under the arenas just as she had as a young woman. Hairy and scaly monsters with long teeth and claws, dragons with clipped wings and gleaming eyes in shadows growling with fear, pain and frustration. The scent of their sweat and excrement was overwhelming.

She heard screaming men and the rending of flesh and wanted to block out their terror but it could not be escaped. She tried to block her ears, eyes and nose but nothing could soften the terror she felt. She found herself calling to her mother, to her father and most especially to the kind servant woman who had wet-nursed her until she was five. But she could not remember any of their names.

Then she stood on the hilltop overlooking all Charn, a terrified little girl seeking for something, the huge dark sky and the orange dark sun glowering at her, but all was dead, dead and dry. The desolation of the Deplorable Word rang in the earth and the sky. There was nowhere to go and no-one to comfort her.

In the midst of this terror she heard her own name being called tenderly by a voice she could not remember. The world turned upside down and her dream eyes opened and she saw that she was in a cage herself, bars of black or white shimmering interchangeably. She was not alone. Around her were the trampled and broken bodies of men, women and children, dragons, sphynxes and dogs.

But the voice was from outside the cage. She looked up and saw that pacing her cage around and around was a huge lion. It was his voice calling to her, telling her something, sternly, but tenderly… and lovingly. Jadis was transfixed, caught in the dream world, trying to work out what message it was giving her. What was it offering? Its eyes lambent, promising something… Respite? Rescue? Ending? Death? The shimmering bars of the cage spun around her, like an astral carrousel. Through the flickering, Jadis could still see deep into those eyes and the vision of peace again but the trees and pools in tranquil sunlight and soft shadows, winding into green distances were confused as if repeatedly lashed by lightning. "Even now, it is not too late" came the words in a gentle growl.

But the vision and voice of the lion, now blurring further, became fainter and fainter and the bars of white and black became a forest of frozen white apple trees which grew thicker and thicker enclosing her with no escape. "What do you want from me?" she screamed.

"Renounce your claim on this world. Embrace its claim on you", came a last whisper.

Jadis woke with cold sweat all over, her own voice echoing in her head, her heart beating hard and reflux in her throat. The fire had gone out and the first grey of the dark winter morning was peeping in at the crack in the shutters. There was no wind.

…

Jadis lay in the warmth of her bed but felt the chill penetrating the room with the fire long gone out. Pondering her dreams, allowing their echo to flow through her with eyes closed. The great Lion had been circling, calling to her... She could still hear the echo of his molten voice now saying… what?! She opened her eyes and the echo stopped.

She knew it for a true sending. She had been trapped in a cage of icy trees… but he could not get in! Ahah! That was something. He was aware of her actions and could do nothing to stop her… but could she get out? Out of Narnia? That was the real question.

She was certainly not reconciled to being stuck in Narnia, for any length of time, but there was nothing to be done presently except take Narnia one step at a time. She had to use whatever resources she had available to get herself out and away. She had at least three hours to kill until her suit of clothes arrived for the first fitting.

So she rose and wrapped herself in blankets, called for the fire to be relit and a cauldron on a trivet to be provided and a pail of fresh snow. Into the cauldron went the contents of her ox horn; the ice from around the Tree of Protection and her own reflux. Together, they sizzled in the clutches of the hot iron. She added the juice of the oranges, representing the life of the outside world and then the fresh snow representing the deep cold and darkness of aphelion. Then, binding shreds of wet cloth from her ripped pillow cases across her nose and mouth, Jadis grasped her stone knife to scrape the inner bark away. Slowly. Piece by piece. Once she had accumulated as much as she could into a bowl, she emptied it into the cauldron with the melting snow,

She stirred it several times with her stone knife and built up the fire further. She backed away from the first gouts of steam that arose and gagged and coughed several times and spat her hawkings into the cauldron along with the rest, readjusting her mask. Then using her stone knife again, Jadis stirred the potion slowly nine times in each direction. She repeated this many many times, calling on the faceless gods of the deep sky to be her witness, and vowing that with this brew she would bring to all who came, both their hearts desire and their despair. After two hours, Jadis had a cauldron one third full of bubbling pale greenish yellow ooze. She put a plate over the top of the precious liquid and set the cauldron aside to cool.

Jadis received a knock at the door shortly after. It was not the seamstress back early, it was a request for a short audience in the parlour of the inn, with the King's seneschal.

So, her ploy had worked and now the court was in a flurry and had sent its senior retainer to see who this mysterious person was, claiming to be an empress. She looked out the window into the inner courtyard. Yes, there were three gaily caparisoned horses, blowing steam and looking cold.

There was no point in wearing her old stinking hooded skin suit. Jadis fingers expertly draped and folded her bed blankets about her in a rough imitation of a Felindan priest's garb. One folded stylishly over her shoulder. She kept on her boots. It would have to do.

Jadis strode down the hall into the parlour to meet this seneschal. He was a tall middle aged ruddy skinned man, dressed in plain black, with an upright pose and a weary slightly annoyed look. He was flanked by a coffee skinned young man (his son?) and a greenish skinned young woman with leaves in her hair, also in thick black clothing, looking cold and a little bored. They eyed her clothing and height uncertainly. The seneschal reminded her a little of the man who had become King here at the dawn of time but there was an added something; some essence of this land that oozed from him. He tipped his head at her when she walked in and met her gaze levelly.

He held her letter up. "I am the Seneschal of King Dale of Narnia. I believe this letter is from you".

"Indeed it is" Jadis answered with a slight bow, an attempt at warm graciousness. She followed this with a cool, "However, I am not given to responding to such rudeness, even from the official delegate of a foreign royalty."

The young people's eyes widened and stopped looking bored.

The seneschal braced himself and responded in kind. "May it please you to understand that in this country it is you who are foreign. Now I see you with my own eyes, that becomes plain indeed. Whether you are royal, let alone an empress remains to be seen. There have been other pretenders here before you."

Her eyes narrowed and then she said, "Nevertheless, all the particulars in that letter are correct".

She let him pause for breath, because she could see that in the end he was just a burdened official send to do a disagreeable task and she would hear him out.

He coughed to clear his throat and spoke in a forceful voice. "Be that as it may, you are not an empress over Narnia or its King. However, now that you have announced yourself, whilst you are in Narnia you will be afforded an audience with the king on the strength of that announcement. Shelter as well if you need it in the midst of this abominable deep winter that has come upon us."

He continued in a slightly more friendly and conciliatory tone.

"But in truth, you would have been able to see the King without all this hoo-hah. You could have just walked up to the castle as you were, spoken to the first person you saw, and asked to see the King." He smiled. "You might have had to wait, but we are not overly given to awkward ceremony and status in this country. Indeed, if anything, it is downplayed. If the King or the Queen is first to the attack or defence in war and last in retreat and plays fairly by all the country's beasts, birds and peoples, and provides for the future and hard times, then he or she will have done their duty. It is a hard enough task and a sacred one that extends to all humans here."

By way of explanation he said "We Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve in Narnia all descend from King Frank and Queen Helen and thus all belong to the extended royal family. We belong to the land and the other peoples. The land and peoples do not belong to us. It is a pity some of our near neighbours do not pay more respect to this state of affairs. Whilst in Narnia is would be well, if your own conduct did so, with some attention to tone."

Was he referring to her free use of gold and her high pressure orders for fancy clothes?

"Tone?", "Respect?" Jadis was having none of it. "Money has value in this land does it not? I enter this land in the midst of its deep winter freeze, with the stinking clothes on my back that were made in the dark northern wilderness through my own toil and craft! Having returned to civilisation with gold and silver to my hand, I require warm comfortable clothes, befitting my station that I may conduct myself with dignity in the company of fellow humans! "

"By all the gods of the galaxies! Is it too much to ask that persons with skills and materials to hand may ply their trade with alacrity and devotion for several days that I may be attired in the manner to which I was formerly accustomed? I give you fair warning Master Seneschal. I shall have words with your master about your tone!"

He swallowed, less for fear of his King's response, but rather because he was not looking forward to continued interaction with this strong and assertive woman.

"I shall attend upon the King of Narnia tomorrow according to the response you just delivered. Get you gone!"

Sometime later the seamstress and mercer both came for her first fitting. The inn's parlour was requisitioned for the event. They had a time of it. Jadis was a hard task mistress and had a word to say about nearly every stitch. She could also see in the mirror that the white collar had done little to relieve the white pallor of her face, so the cook was called in to provide a little something to stain her lips and cheeks. In the end they scuttled away again, with the promise to return in the late morning of the following day, the day of the Winterfather.

Jadis spent the rest of the day and night secluded in her room, meditating on her situation, weighing alternatives.

…

The inn-keeper and his family and staff had been beside themselves since they found out. "An Empress!" they'd chortled to each other all morning. "But you should have seen her when she tramped in yesterday. Dressed in skins and fleeces she was." said the innkeeper "And grubby!" said his wife "Stunk to high heaven" giggled the maid and eldest son to each other, who had helped lug the bath and hot water into (and out of) Jadis' room.

"Empress of where was it?" "Char and Cinders and Bagging is what I heard", "Whoo hoo!, you cheeky!", "No it was Charm and something or other", "Where's Charn?", "No idea" "I heard she slid all the way down from Lantern Waste and Beaversdam on those foot sled things", "Yes, caused quite a stir through Beruna, they say, came out of nowhere", "Yes, nearly skittled my cousin who was out there shovelling her door path, her messenger bird told me!" and so on it went.

By late morning, Hadis was getting her final fitting. By early afternoon, there was quite a crowd who had gathered, several score of curious townsfolk who had braved the hard cold to see the mysterious and strange Empress that the inn-keepers and the boy had been prattling about. Most were fully human, but there were more than a few that looked like they might have been the Harbourmaster's close relatives scattered about, a few birds including some gulls, ravens and some great grey pelicans, several dogs who were having a loud disagreement about what an Empress was and one lone centaur who stood majestically, chest bare to the chill, watching her gravely, frowning and scowling with disquiet.

The King's retainers arrived with a lot of clop clop clopping as they turned about face in the street. It was a Narnian closed carriage, four wheels, arched walls and roof, all polished timber and a little glass with just a little gilded scrollwork and a gold Lion's head on the doors... to remind the rulers who had put them there.

Jadis cut a tall and striking figure as she stepped out onto the street. Decked out in crimson velvet jacket and skirts, long puffed and slashed sleeves, with green and white glass beading and tall white fur collar and cuffs and hem, with her long black hair piled high on her head, with more beads wound in and out. The innkeeper had found her some off-the-shelf black calf length boots belonging to the local cobbler in return for more gold. Her wand was carried openly, majestically, glistening like a helix of thick metallic liquid. A coachman opened the door and in she stepped.

The coach trundled off. Jadis could see a little of what passed and as they climbed the road on the sheltered side of the headland up to the castle, she was sure she saw an eldritch face or two staring curiously from the tree trunks of the double avenue of tall beech and oak trees. And then for several moments she had the illusion that the carriage had slowed before realising that the very trees were almost keeping pace with the carriage!

After a few minutes, the road levelled out and the coach pulled around in a great arc, on icey gravel and the team of four horses slowly clip clopped to a stop, their breath and even their sweat steaming around them in the frigid air.

The door was opened. Waiting on the lower steps of Cair Paravel, right and left there were dogs and wolves, a tiger, three centaurs, several very tall yellow-green skinned women with long twiggy hair, a unicorn, several ravens and giant otters, a gryphon, a cluster of fauns and satyrs, and several Narnian dwarfs. One was thoughtfully picking his nose. All looked very cold.

On the upper steps was a vee of humans and almost-humans of various ages flanking a thin old man with a simple circlet of gold on his head set with rubies. At first glance, he looked like he would rather be curled next to a fire or tucked up in bed with no alarming visitors. They all stared and not just at her.

Two of the centaurs blew upon enormous bugles and the third, acting as herald, bellowed out, "King Dale of Narnia welcomes Jadis of Charn, Felinda and Bramandin to Cair Paravel on the day of the Winterfather. Narnia trusts that bonds of friendship and mutual regard will be forged on this historic and unlooked for occasion."

So they weren't going to acknowledge her title as Empress then! And it was all at too short notice! They would be hard put to find her countries of origin on any map anyway, much less any list of her pedigree. Jadis grinned sardonically to herself.

Jadis stepped out of the carriage before anyone could come forward and deliberately stood at her full height, her left arm out, her wand tip touching the ground, smiling graciously. As she did so, she heard a loud rustling and crackling sound. She swung around and saw that behind the carriage was a veritable forest of tall tree people festooned with snow. They were appeared to be peering intently at her over and around the carriage.

She turned back to the assembly and cried in a ringing voice: "I, Jadis, Empress of Charn, Felinda and Bramandin, do acknowledge the welcome of the Narnian King to his land. May this occasion be the first of many meetings in a long and prosperous relationship."

Then the King shuffled forward flanked by two of his sons followed by the glowering seneschal and shakily gave her his hand. Together Dale and Jadis walked into Cair Paravel, trailed by the rest. To the left of the entrance hall was a large reception room in which there were two roaring fires a cluster of low tables and a semi-circle of seats. The King walked slowly to his seat and sat down with some effort, one of his sons hovering. A seat nearby was offered to Jadis, who sat, her wand leaning against her hip, lips set in a formal smile, taking it all in. Others of the royal household also took seats or took places standing. The doors were closed and jugs of red mulled wine were poured into goblets. A toast was made to Narnia and Aslan the Great Lion and all drank a mouthful. Jadis touched the wine to her lips in form, but did not drink in Aslan's name.

Once these formalities were out the way, the King leaned toward Jadis a little and said in a clear but shaky voice. "I must say, you seem to have caused quite a stir amongst the local tree dryads Lady Jadis. I have never known them to behave in such a way. There must be something about you!" the king said with a friendly waggle of his finger."

Then he turned to a less pleasant subject. All ears and eyes were upon them.

"We have been hard beset to locate the cities or countries you claim to be from Lady Jadis. Nay, pray do not be offended" he said as he saw her stiffen.

"In our histories, Narnia was the first land in this young world to be peopled. As a result, Narnia tends to be very well informed about all those kingdoms which have been established since, often with Narnian assistance and ancestry. We know of no Empresses, indeed no Empires at all, except our neighbour Calormen, which lies beyond the Archen Mountains to the South. But its peoples are of markedly different complexion and countenance to yourself and there are no cities or provinces of Calormen bearing any of the names you bear. We have agreed to treat with you here today taking into account that no Narnian knowledge is infallible and that you may be all you say you are. But we are most curious to know directly from you why you are here in our lands at all, why a person claiming to be an Empress is alone here, what you are seeking and why you appear to have slipped in from the north and then announced yourself so precipitously."

So, her arrival had not gone unnoticed. She wondered what else had been noticed and reported.

"To be blunt Lord King, I seek a way out of your country at the earliest time and would welcome any assistance in this endeavour. Nay, pray do not be offended", she mimicked drily when she saw the catch in the faces of those within earshot.

"Twice only have I been in Narnia, each time for less than 3 days. Once in its Spring and now once in Midwinter but most assuredly nothing would please me more that to be out of this country and far to the South".

"For know this. I, Jadis, ruling Empress was abducted from Charn by mere children, and I have been forced against my will to exile in the cold north-west far beyond your Western Wild for... for many years. I have entered Narnia with the desire to use its port to sail Southwards to warmer climes and perchance a way back to my own lands. But now I find the harbourage frozen solid and the port officials less than helpful."

Jadis noticed some of the humans who were present looking a little embarassed, but the non-humans looked like they didn't care. How interesting.

"Ahem, yes, well, we are aware that several ships are caught in the ice that came in so suddenly two mornings ago. An unfortunate situation. As for the harbourmaster, he really is a very good chap. Poor fellow, got such a shock with the heavy cold and yesterday reported something very alarming. An entire ship's crew and masters turned to stone! It was as if they were frozen solid if you can believe me?".

Jadis raised an eyebrow and forced her mouth into a moue, her hand drummed lightly on her wand.

"As for my heritage and provenance, that is altogether as I have declared in my missive yesterday, but I must confess I do not know the way back and perforce I must go exploring."

The King replied, "Our friends in Archenland might be persuaded to assist you across the mountains, and even see you safely escorted to Tashbaan, the Calormene capital. But as I am sure you appreciate, the mountains at this time of such deep cold and heavy snowfall are like to result in dangerous conditions with avalanches and so forth, which will only worsen once the spring thaw begins. If you would take my advice, stay here in Narnia till a ship can be freed and then we would be only too happy to… help you on your way."

"But there is one other way", spoke up one of Dale's sons. "We do expect the Winterfather to arrive here this very day, as you seemingly knew in your letter Lady Jadis. It may well be when he dispenses his gifts that he will find some way to accomplish your noble aim." He bowed slightly and smiled charmingly.

…

The Winterfather never arrived. Not that day, not that year and not for many years thereafter.

It was some months after Jadis' arrival at Cair Paravel as a guest, it became plain that Spring and Summer were not arriving back in a hurry. This was when the humans of Narnia began to disappear, starting with the Royal Family.

Long after King Dale had died and his sons and grandchildren after him, some on the Stone Table, the people of Narnia still entertained the hope that the Winterfather would finally be able to enter Narnia again and that the great thaw would finally begin.

It was the bull seal from the wharf who reported the prophecy.

"Oh, yes it was Glaucus himself! He came and sat on the rocks just over there. He threw me lots of fish from under the ice one by one. Then he slapped his great tail on the water and bid us listen well. Said he had a message from the Emperor-over-Sea himself."

When Eve and Adam's flesh and bone,

Again sit at the Cair in throne,

The evil time will be over and done,

The Lion's breath will have truly won.

...

Winter father will gifts dispense,

Joyous laughter no mere pretence,

The promise of the Emperor's blessing,

The end of all that's been distressing.

...

For Winter shall have met its death,

When Narnia samples Aslan's breath,

For he will surely shake his mane,

And then the spring shall be again.

...

The forests shall unfurl in leaf,

As Aslan bares his great big teeth,

But lonely and long will be your wait,

Too many lives before this date.

Notes:

I could easily keep writing but I tend to indulge in detail that can hamper progress. So I will leave this story here for the present. I think Jadis performing homicide on the Royal Family is what bars her from the Cair, and induces her to take up residence where this story began, at the saddle of two high hills overlooking Lantern Waste and Beaversdam.

You might notice I keep saying that there is no wind. My vision of Jadis's winter is that the Tree of Protection as its dying act was to deepen the winter right across Narnia to its borders with uncrossable edges. This effectively turns Narnia into a cage to keep Jadis from entering the wider world, but it also cuts it off from the world's natural weather patterns. This includes the wind. The people's of Narnia are the sacrifice for the world's benefit, and Jadis taps into this by using the Stone Table to maintain her power in her icy prison. In Jadis's winter there is no wind, no blizzards, just gentle snow gradually falling.


End file.
